US marines to join Australian warship after HMAS Toowomba was Challenged by Chinese Navy in SCS

American marines will soon embed on Australia's largest warship for a tour of Pacific island nations, as concerns grow among western allies over Beijing's rising influence in the region.

Key points:

Defence Minister Marise Payne said planning for "Indo-Pacific Endeavour 18" had been underway since late last year
Several dozen US marines will be embedded on HMAS Adelaide ahead of war games in Hawaii in July
Last month, Australian ships had been challenged by the Chinese Navy as the transited through the South China Sea

The ABC can reveal preparations are almost complete for the Australian Defence Force's Joint Task Group mission, centred on the amphibious Landing Helicopter Dock, HMAS Adelaide.

In a statement, Defence Minister Marise Payne said planning for "Indo-Pacific Endeavour 18" had been underway since late last year.

"IPE 18 is a major activity for the Australian Defence Force, and aims to promote security in our near region through a series of bilateral and multilateral engagements with our regional partners, as well as training and capacity-building activities," Senator Payne told the ABC.

The Minister said Royal Australian Navy ships HMAS Adelaide, HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Toowoomba and HMAS Success would take part "in a range of training and engagement activities in Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa and the Solomon Islands".

"Ships assigned to IPE 18 will also take part in Exercise Rim of the Pacific, a bi-annual multinational joint exercise staged in and around the Hawaiian Islands," the Minister said.

Defence sources have confirmed several dozen US marines, who are part of a current rotation in Darwin, would also be embedded on HMAS Adelaide ahead of the RIMPAC war games in Hawaii in July.
HMAS Toowoomba
Photo: HMAS Toowoomba had recently been challenged by the Chinese Navy in waters claimed by Beijing. (Supplied: Royal Australian Navy)

Euan Graham, the Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute, has welcomed the impending Pacific deployment.

"It's a clear signal that Australia is stepping up its presence and its defence diplomacy in the immediate region," Mr Graham said.

"There is a connection that could be made between the geopolitical competition that we're starting to see unfold in the Pacific, with China becoming more present as an actor (including military deployments that will become more regular in the future) and Australia doesn't want that gap to be filled by outside actors."

Last month the ABC revealed HMAS Toowoomba and HMAS Success, along with HMAS Anzac, had been challenged by the Chinese Navy as they were transiting towards Vietnam through the South China Sea, in waters claimed by Beijing.

Last month the ABC revealed HMAS Toowoomba and HMAS Success, along with HMAS Anzac, had been challenged by the Chinese Navy as they were transiting towards Vietnam through the South China Sea, in waters claimed by Beijing

The Chinese navy challenged Australian warships in the South China Sea as it conducted its largest-ever naval parade

Three of Australia's warships were "challenged" by the Chinese navy in the South China Sea earlier this month, according to an ABC report.

Defense sources told ABC that Australia's navy was en route to Vietnam when it encountered polite but "robust" challenges from the People's Liberation Army (PLA), but the specific nature of the challenges is not described. HMAS Toowoomba had departed from Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, while HMAS Anzac and HMAS Success travelled through the South China Sea after leaving the Philippines.

It's believed the interaction happened around the same time China was conducting its largest-ever naval parade on April 12. The massive show of force involved 10,000 naval officers, 48 naval vessels, submarines, the country's only aircraft carrier.

During the event President Xi Jinping was on board one of the destroyers, overseeing the parade.

"All I can say to you is we maintain and practice the right of freedom of navigation and overflight throughout the world," Turnbull said. "In this context, you're talking about naval vessels on the world's oceans including the South China Sea, as is our perfect right in accordance with international law.""

Australian warships challenged by Chinese military in South China Sea
"Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne also reiterated Australia's rights within international law and downplayed the seriousness of the incident."I think 'confrontation' is somewhat of a tabloid-style description of what goes on in the South China Sea very regularly," he said.

In a statement, China's Defence Ministry said: "“The reports from Australia are different from the facts".

"On April 15 China's naval vessels encountered Australian naval ships in the South China Sea. China's ships used professional language to communicate with the Australian side. China's operation is lawful and conforms to conventions. It is professional and safe."

No real details of where this event took place or how close these ships were to each other when "communicating to each other", 5Km, 50 Km? Were the ships being warned of the Chinese Naval Manoeuvrers taking place nearby? Was it radar images, visual range, radio transmissions, bullhorns or banging hulls?

Don't navies inform the world a certain area of ocean is closed for these types of events and other ships keep clear? Unless they are spy trawlers full of evil foreigners? One wonders if the Australians were not aware of the Chines ships playing games at sea with their only aircraft carrier Which opens the question if they did not, it must have been a surprise. If they did, why would they want to interrupt the Chinese war games?

How many CSG's does Australia have?

One wonders what UK or ameristan would have done if Lizze or BB were on ship in the middle of the ocean, as allegedly Uncle Xi was, and foreign warships were approaching at high speed, closing in on the "defensive zone", of Lizze or BB.

Since taking power as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of its Central Military Commission in late 2012, Xi Jinping has taken bold steps to reform the Chinese military and demonstrated a willingness to project military power. The new five-year military reform plan that began in November 2015 has already led to a major restructure of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and concentration of more powers in Xi’s hands, thus further weakening civilian oversight over the military.

The projection of China’s military power is particularly noticeable in the militarization of the artificial islands in the South China Sea, despite claims to the contrary. Earlier this month, the US media reported that American intelligence sources have confirmed that China has installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles on three of these islands. The presence of the PLA Navy (PLAN) infrastructure and other hardware in the South China Sea has reached such a point that recently it prompted the incoming chief of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Philip S Davidson, to tell a US Senate Committee that “China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States.”

If China’s growing naval power in the South China Sea is worrying the United States and its allies, its increasing presence in the Indian Ocean is ringing alarm bells in New Delhi, Washington and several other capitals. China’s naval presence in the Indian Ocean region has increased as its dependence on oil imports from the Middle East and Africa has grown. China began its naval engagement in the Indian Ocean as part of its collaborative efforts with the international community to control piracy and deal with terrorism. It worked closely with the European Union countries and the US in the Gulf of Aden in their anti-piracy operations, sending more than two dozen naval groups to the region between 2008 and 2017.

China’s anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden provided China with a cover to establish a permanent presence in the region by building its first overseas military base in Djibouti. Initially flagged as a logistics base to support the PLAN’s counter-piracy operations, the facility in Djibouti is a full-fledged military base with the presence of all branches of the Chinese military. Located only a few miles from the United States’ only military base in Africa, the Chinese base, which became operational on 1 August 2017, has a large helicopter facility and accommodation for 10,000 military personnel. It is also believed to have exclusive access to at least one of the berths of the Chinese-built Doraleh Multipurpose Port.

In 2011, long before China began the construction of its Djibouti base, the nationalist Global Times newspaper had called for China to build overseas military bases. The stated rationale behind such calls by the Chinese state media and some scholars was that in addition to resisting pirates and terrorists, such bases will help the Chinese military in fulfilling its international obligations as part of China’s participation in UN Peacekeeping operations in Africa. Moreover, they argued, the overseas military bases can also be used to evacuate Chinese citizens from conflict zones.

The scale and layout of the Chinese base in Djibouti, however, suggests that it is not a facility designed solely to protect trade routes from pirates and terrorists and to help with peacekeeping operations. Some analysts believe that it may be part of a Chinese plan to establish a network of military bases in the Indian Ocean region. In fact, American and some Indian strategists have long argued that China is trying to surround India with a network of dual-use port facilities in the Indian Ocean. This was dubbed as a ‘string of pearls’ strategy by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in a report prepared for the US Defence Department in the early 2000s. Entitled “Energy Futures in Asia”, the report argued that the construction of these ports was meant to not only “protect China’s energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives.”

There is much speculation that China’s next naval base would most likely be built in the Pakistani port city of Gwadar, where a Chinese built port is already managed by a Chinese company and there is a strong Chinese presence. Gwadar is the terminus of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project of Xi Jinping’s One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR), which is now officially translated as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
China has also taken a 99-year lease on Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, which was built by Chinese companies and funded by a Chinese loan. As the port hardly generates any income and Sri Lanka was unable to repay the loan, China offered to convert its loan into equity. Although the Sri Lankan government has said the Hambantota port will not be used as a Chinese military base and it would not compromise India’s security, there remains a possibility that a debt-ridden Sri Lankan government might be pushed into allowing the PLAN use of the port.
The Indian government was concerned when a Chinese submarine and a warship docked in Colombo in October 2014. The new Sirisena government which took power in January 2015, however, may have adopted a different approach to visits by Chinese submarines and warships as it rejected another request from China for a submarine visit to Colombo in October 2017. It is not clear whether this represents a policy change on the part of the Sri Lankan government or the request was denied so as not to cause offence to the prime minister of India who was visiting Sri Lanka the same month.
Regardless of the short-term tactical changes in the policies of Indian Ocean states in relation to naval cooperation with China, the long-term trend in the region seems to be one of competition and rivalry between the two rising powers of Asia. China is likely to continue to push ahead with an enhanced naval presence in the Indian Ocean. While India on its own might not be able to counter the growing Chinese presence in what the Indian Navy regards as its Area of Responsibility (AOR), it has stepped up naval cooperation with the United States, Japan and other like-minded countries. The future seems less certain than the imagery of a recent Wuhan summit between Xi and Prime Minister Modi might suggest.
Pradeep Taneja is a Lecturer in Asian Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne.

Located only a few miles from the United States’ only military base in Africa,

I looked at the original as your wall of text was irritating my eyes.

However one statement stood out, see above.

I suggest that shows a certain inexcusable lack of knowledge.

'arry your source is crap. An Indian native, resident and embedded in Australia, come on.

Here is one sources opinion of military bases. It's from 2014 so probably double the countries by now. I suppose the ameristani forces could keep moving around so an actual "base" is never actually built. Bases make such easy targets to attack and some ameristani blue eyed boys might get a scratch or two. Possibly they are carried everywhere, airplane, truck, motorcycle even a locals back and their feet never touch the ground. The "no boots on the ground" soles are wearing a bit thin.

US warships sail near disputed islands in South China Sea in a move likely to anger Beijing

Two US Navy warships have sailed near South China Sea islands claimed by China, two US officials say, in a move likely to anger Beijing as President Donald Trump seeks its continued cooperation on North Korea.

Key points:

The Freedom of Navigation Operations had been planned months in advance
The operations came just days after the Pentagon uninvited China from a major US-hosted naval drill
Critics say the move was largely symbolic and would have little impact on Chinese behaviour

The operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing's efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.

While this operation had been planned months in advance, and similar operations have become routine, it comes at a particularly sensitive time and just days after the Pentagon uninvited China from a major US-hosted naval drill.

The US officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the Higgins guided-missile destroyer and the Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, came within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbours.
A guided missile cruiser does a high-speed turn.
Photo: The operation included the Antietam. (Wikimedia Commons: Lt Doug Houser)

The US military vessels carried out manoeuvring operations near Tree, Lincoln, Triton and Woody islands in the Paracels, one of the officials said.

Mr Trump's cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has put further strain on US-China ties amid a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

Critics of the operations, known as "freedom of navigations", have said they had little impact on Chinese behaviour and were largely symbolic.

The US military has a long-standing position that its operations are carried out throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and that they are separate from political considerations.

Satellite photographs taken on May 12 showed China appeared to have deployed truck-mounted surface-to-air missiles or anti-ship cruise missiles at Woody Island.

Earlier this month, China's air force landed bombers on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of a training exercise in the region, triggering concern from Vietnam and the Philippines.
Chinese H-6K bomber patrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea

Photo: Chinese aircraft have taken off and landed on an island air base in training exercises. (AP: Liu Rui/Xinhua)

The US military did not directly comment on Sunday's operation, but said US forces operated in the region on a daily basis.

"We conduct routine and regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs), as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future," US Pacific Fleet said in a statement.

Neither China's foreign nor defence ministries immediately responded to a request for comment.
Before and after: South China Sea

See how China is converting reefs to military facilities by building artificial islands in the South China Sea.

Pentagon officials have long complained China has not been candid enough about its rapid military build-up, and about its use of the South China Sea islands to gather intelligence in the region.

BEIJING - China on Sunday voiced strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to two US warships trespassing China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said in a statement released on Sunday night that the US warships trespassed into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands on Sunday without permission of the Chinese government, and the Chinese navy identified the US warships, warned and expelled them.

"The Chinese side strongly urges the US side to immediately stop such kind of provocative operations that violate China's sovereignty and threaten China's security," Lu said.

Until someone has been legally granted ownership, it belongs to no-one.

You replied:

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

You're fucking doing it again FFS.

READ THE POSTS.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

One hopes the US will politely tell them to fuck off and take their claim to the ICJ.

ameristan did not read the Permanent Court of Arbitration Rules, which was where the ameristani,then vassal, "won" a judgement" which was promptly diplomatically replied too and ignored:

PERMANENT COURT OF ARBITRATION OPTIONAL RULES FOR ARBITRATING DISPUTES BETWEEN TWO STATES

Effective October 20, 1992

SECTION I

.

INTRODUCTORY RULES

Scope of Application

Article 11. Where the parties to a treaty or other agreement have agreed in writing that disputes shall be referred to arbitration under the Permanent Court of Arbitration Optional Rules for Arbitrating Disputes between Two States, then such disputes shall be settled inaccordance with these Rules subject to such modification as the parties may agree in writing.

Both sides have to agree to be judged. One country didn't which made the award meaningless.

But what's new about ameristan ignoring lawful agreements and purporting to uphold an "International Law" they didn't ratify.

I would suggest that decisions are made by the victorious parties at conferences prior or subsequent to the losing party surrendering. For example the agreements made by the three "Great Powers" towards the end of WWII. Cairo, Potsdam and others.
" To secure this future, he sought a commitment from Chiang Kai-shek that China would not try to expand across the continent or control decolonizing nations, and in return, he offered a guarantee that the territories stolen from China by Japan - including Manchuria, the island of Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands - would be returned to Chinese sovereignty."